Bessie Gertrude Gauldin and Roy Preston McCray
Bessie Gertrude Gauldin was born on 19 February 1910 in Leaksville, Rockingham County, North Carolina, the youngest child of Dock Whitfield Gauldin and Annie Catherine Powell. She grew up in a large mill‑village family whose life revolved around the cotton mills of Leaksville, Spray, and Draper. The 1910 census (1) shows her as an infant in a bustling household with eight older siblings, all living under the roof of her mill‑worker father and her mother, who managed the home. After Dock’s death in 1919, Annie Catherine supported the family by operating a boarding house, a common occupation for widows in textile communities.
Roy Preston McCray was born on 21 March 1905 in Washington County, Virginia, the son of William Cephus McCray and Lillie Ann McElyea. He grew up in the rural mountain region of southwest Virginia before moving south into Rockingham County, where the expanding Marshall Field textile mills offered steady employment.
On 21 December 1929, nineteen‑year‑old Bessie married twenty‑three‑year‑old Roy in Draper, North Carolina. (2) The ceremony was performed by Rev. White of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. The marriage record correctly lists Bessie’s mother but mistakenly names her father as “George.” Roy’s parents were recorded as William and Lillie McCray of Glade Spring, Virginia. (2) Their marriage joined a long‑established mill‑village family with a newcomer drawn to Draper by mill work.
In the 1930 census (3), Bessie and Roy were living with her widowed mother, Annie Catherine, along with Bessie’s younger sister Mary. Both were employed at the cotton mill—Bessie as a spinner, Roy as a doffer—typical roles for young adults in the Marshall Field operations. Annie Catherine was listed as head of household, though the census mistakenly recorded her late husband’s name instead.
By 1940 (4), Bessie and Roy had established their own household on Fieldcrest Road in Draper. Bessie, age thirty, had completed an eighth‑grade education. Roy, age thirty‑five, was working as a loom fixer, a skilled position responsible for maintaining mill machinery. Their home included two children: Betty Grey McCray, age nine, and Kenneth McCray, age four. Roy’s World War II draft card from the early 1940s confirms their residence at 118 Fieldcrest Road and his employment with Marshall Field & Company.
During the 1940s and early 1950s (5), Bessie and Roy continued their lives in Draper, deeply rooted in the mill‑village community. Their daily routines were shaped by mill schedules, neighborhood ties, and the close‑knit social world of Fieldcrest Road.
On 18 September 1953, Bessie died at the age of forty‑three in Leaksville. Her death certificate lists her cause of death as a cerebral hemorrhage due to hypertension, with the illness lasting three days. The certificate incorrectly names her father as “Dewey Gauldin” but correctly identifies her mother as Mary Catherine Powell. At the time of her death, Bessie was living on Meadow Road West in Draper. Her daughter, Mrs. Betty Milner, served as the informant.
Five years after Bessie’s death, on 21 March 1958, Roy remarried. At age fifty‑three, he wed Emma Ashworth, age fifty‑two, in Madison, Rockingham County. He continued living in Eden (the consolidated community formed from Draper, Leaksville, and Spray) during his later years.
Roy Preston McCray died on 5 February 1978 in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the age of seventy‑two. (7) His residence was listed as Eden, and he was buried in Overlook Cemetery (8), reflecting his long connection to the mill‑village communities where he had lived and worked for decades.
Works Cited
1. 1910 United States Federal Census. ancestry.com. [Online] North Carolina, Rockingham, Leaksville, District 0156. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/4450100_00205?pId=173517526.
2. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Index, 1741-2004. ancestry.com. [Online] Rockingham. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8909/images/NCVR_M_C084_63004-0627?pId=1717820.
3. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011. ancestry.com. [Online] Rockingham, Marriage Licenses (1867 - 1961). https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60548/images/42091_342690-01311?pId=14453013.
4. 1930 United States Federal Census. ancestry.com. [Online] North Carolina, Rockingham, Leaksville, District 0006. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4608312_00680?pId=75647208.
5. 1940 United States Federal Census. ancestry.com. [Online] North Carolina, Rockingham, Draper, 79-4. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-02966-00115?pId=153243870.
6. 1950 United States Federal Census. ancestry.com. [Online] North Carolina, Rockingham, Draper, 79-5. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/62308/images/43290879-North_Carolina-039252-0003?pId=146632714.
7. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976. ancestry.com. [Online] Rockingham, 1953, September. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1121/images/S123_393-2110?pId=813180.
8. North Carolina, U.S., Death Indexes, 1908-2004. ancestry.com. [Online] https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8908/records/5679694?tid=163174124&pid=422121229746&ssrc=pt.
9. Roy P. McCray. Find a Grave. [Online] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152939819/roy-p.-mccray.
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